Hello. My cat gave birth to 2 lovely kitties yesterday. While I was observing the young mother playing with her babies, I noticed the newborns are flea-infected! Is there any instant DIY solution? I do not want to use chemicals on them yet. This is new to me for my cats are always clean and flea-free.
Treating the mother is probably the only way to go--the kitties are just too young and too vulnerable to have any kind of flea treatment. We use Comfortis, a pill given once a month, that kills fleas within 30 minutes and the effects last for a month. The active ingredient is spinosad. It is available through a vetinerary. Our cat is a calico, very susceptible to any chemical applied to her skin, but Comfortis has no effect on her. If you can control the fleas on mama, the control will probably extend to the kittens. Congratulations on being a grandmamma to two adorable little kitties!
Thanks! It's a wonderful feeling being a grandma Well, it's night time right now, I was hoping for a DIY solution, that will give me a good 8 hours advance before the pharmacies open
Oubee, if you have some talcum powder, preferably without scent, you can dust the kittens lightly with it. The powder inhibits the fleas' ability to breathe, and when mama grooms her babies, there won't be enough talcum to bother her. This is not a cure, but a short-term solution to a flea infestation. There will be fleas, but fewer of them.
Oubee fleas can be a real danger to kittens as they drain so much blood from them that the poor little kits become very lethargic and can even perish. I hope you can get an early appointment with your vet and that they can give you a solution that will be 100% affective both for mum and the new babies. The mother cat must have picked up the fleas from someone's elses cat and then they jumped from her to the little ones.
If you dare to give them a bath you can use Dawn detergent or Lestoil. They kills flees by dissolving the protective oil from around the flee and drowns them. You start with a ring of detergent around the neck before you put the kitten in a sink full of water adding Dawn to the kitten after. You can do that every day as the flee eggs hatch out. you can do that to the mom also.
Simple fix for newborns is to mix a bit of flea shampoo and water for cats in a bowl, then use a soft toothbrush or baby brush and hold the kitten above the mixture and brush the fleas gently off and into the water mix with the brush. Treat the mother accordingly for hers. Might have to do this daily for a while. The fleas will die in the shampoo mix. Don`t dump the water from the bowl for at least an hour to make sure the fleas in it are dead.
